The Gourmet Mama

Shaped eggs are a part of bento, the fun Japanese lunches that are becoming so popular these days. However, they aren`t just for lunch, you can slice them in half and use them as garnishes, put them on top of toast and cheese and drizzle with Hollandaise Sauce for a fun lunch or turn them into Deviled eggs with a twist!

First, you`ll need Egg Molds which you can purchase anywhere bento supplies are sold. I bought mine on Ebay.

Start out by hardboiling your eggs. They should be hot still when you start working with them. You could use gloves . . . I usually just toss the egg back and forth and burn myself a lot. You can let them cool a bit, but remember that this will work best if you put them into the molds while they are still fairly warm.

While the eggs are boiling, prepare your molds. With molds that have complicated designs like these ones, I just drizzle a little bit of oil into them and rub it over the contours with my fingers. The package doesn`t tell you to do this, but I`ve started it because otherwise, those little bits get stuck in the egg and pull it apart when you try to remove it.

Once your eggs are boiled, you`ll need to peel them. It`s easiest to do this if you lightly whack the big end on the counter. There is an air bubble at this end, so it will crack easily without wrecking the egg.

Take the peeled egg and look at the mold. In this case, the fish mold has a bigger head than tail, so the large end of the egg needs to go at the larger end.

Put the egg into the mold, squeezing the sides gently and wiggling it in there. Don`t worry too much about the fit, any excess will be squeezed out when you close the mold.

Then you close it. These molds have a clasp that you need to close . . . others will just snap together.

Sorry about the changing colors here . . . I messed up the photos and didn`t get a straight series of either mold!

Now, pop those suckers into the fridge for at least 2 hours. I find that overnight lets them really set up and the design will be far more pronounced.

When they are properly chilled, you can take them out and open them.

As you can see, this egg was a bit large for the mold, so some of it squished out the side . . . you can just trim that off.

To remove the eggs, you`ll want to be very gentle or they will rip in half. You can loosen them a bit by squeezing the sides gently and wiggling the egg a little. Then turn the mold over in your hand and give it a firm thwack on the bottom. You might need to shake it a little to get the egg loose. With the simpler molds, like hearts and stars, this probably won`t be a problem.

And presto! You now have some very nifty looking eggs!

TIP: If you want REALLY special shaped bento eggs, you can soak them in water with a few drops of food coloring for 15-20 min. and they will end up nicely colored. My kids ate these ones before I could do that step!